One bit of conjecture that Cameron feels hasn’t aged as well in the film is his treatment of one of the real-life stories that played out on the Titanic. In the movie, the director depicts the ship’s first officer, William McMaster Murdoch, shooting a passenger and then committing suicide in the midst of the evacuation, a dramatic choice that upset one of Murdoch’s descendants. “That still remains controversial,” Cameron admits. “I suppose I took a creative liberty with that particular character, who wasn’t a character — he was a person and had living descendants at the time the film was released. I think it’s important to remember that this was relatively recent history, and there are still people affected by it.” Cameron adds that he shot additional scenes featuring real-life Titanic passengers that he wound up cutting from the film in order to keep the focus on the Jack and Rose’s romance. “I think with the Titanic community, there’s a sense that I told this frivolous love story; unfortunately, that’s not the way the moviegoing audience looks at it. I was riding a lot of information in on the backs of a love story that got people to show up.”